Eight Reasons to Seriously Consider Panasonic’s AG-DVX200

AG-DVX200

In 2002 Panasonic introduced the first truly affordable digital progressive scan camera with the release of the AG-DVX100. The camera recorded in SD format, with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Later came the AG-HVX200, which provided 24p, 1080p HD or 720p video formats. These cameras were game changers for their time. The popular show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was shot using the DVX100, proving it’s value to broadcast professionals.

This year Panasonic has done it again with the introduction of the AG-DVX200 4K/60 P large format camera. The camera records “high quality video in cinematic DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 at 24p, UHD 4K 3840 x 2160 (60p/30p24p), FHD (including 120 fps and 24p) as well as SD”.

As more and more television productions are shot in 60p UHD, the AG-DVX200 is there to meet the demand. In addition to its 4K production quality, the camera’s 4/3 format provides the shallow depth of field usually reserved for film. The V-Log L 12 stop aperture and variable frame rate (up to 120fps) gives the videographer more latitude to shoot in less than perfect lighting conditions.

Read on for eight reasons why anyone can shoot video like a boss with this camera.

Reason #1:  Stop the shakes!

The camera also includes a 5-axis hybrid image stabilizer, manual or auto focus, iris and zoom.  XLR audio inputs, HDMI (4K), 3G SDI (HD or SD only), and standard definition composite outputs.  Because the sensor is larger than those in the past, the camera itself is a bit bigger than earlier versions.

Reason #2:  Spot on Color

The electronic viewfinder is OLED. The camera also has a waveform monitor and vectorscope on board to ensure correct color balance and brightness levels.

Reason #3:  V-LOG!

Earlier Panasonic cameras had an upgrade available to owners who wanted the option to incorporate V-log into their productions. The AG-DVX200 now has V-log L as a standard feature. V-log “allows for a wider dynamic range of luminance information that is more in line with how the human eye sees”. This means more shadow and highlight details, closer to film than video.

Reason #4:  Plenty o’ Memory!

The camera can record to two SDHC or SDXC memory cards. The SDHC can record up to 32 GB of video, the SDXC can record up to 2 TB of video! The SDXC card is 13 times faster than a SDHC card, allowing for UHS speed class 3 for high-speed data transfer, this enables 4K/24p, UHD/60p, and VFR recording. Approximately 160 minutes of 4K/24p data can be recorded onto a 128 GB SD memory card, or a scene of about 110 minutes of UHD/60p data. (A 64 GB SD memory card will hold approximately 80 minutes of 4K/24p data, or about 55 minutes of UHD/60p data.) Another great option on this camera is that you can record in two different formats, such as HD and UHD at the same time.

Reason #5:  Dueling Codecs!

Images can be simultaneously recorded into two different formats, Main & Sub. The Sub Rec File can be used for tasks such as previews, offline editing, and internet data transfers. Dual recording is provided with two modes, an FHD 50M mode and an FHD 8M mode.

Reason #6:  2 Channel Digital Audio Recording!

PCM format for MOV/MP4 formats or Dolby Digital AVCHD format is available from the built in mic, mic or line inputs. Level adjustments are available directly on the camera.

The Panasonic AG-DVX200 is a versatile video tool that deserves serious consideration by the videographer looking to upgrade to 4K.

Reason #7:  Affordability

Panasonic is offering a $400.00 rebate on the sale of this camera to end users through the end of September!

Reason #8:  That’s a latte features in a camera

The AG-DVX200 will be at our upcoming E4 events. Visit the Panasonic booth for a hands-on tour of this amazing camera and receive a $5.00 Starbucks gift card (while supplies last).

Why I’m happy my outside TV died during Football Season

I couldn’t wait for my TV to die.  Crazy, right?  Read on and I’ll explain.

More than half the TVs installed in outdoor spaces are engineered for indoor use.  And I was like most people.  Why would I spend more on an outdoor rated display when I could get something for less than half the price?  If it dies I can run out and pick up a newer model and throw it up on the wall without much down time.  And when my first display died I did just that.  I found an old plasma in the house and hung it up outside.  Eventually, as expected, its performance began to decline.

Flag on the play!

What’s the black box in the corner of my screen?

“Die, you imperfect plasma, just DIE!” I muttered to myself in the fall.  Here’s a snapshot of its demise, notice the upper right hand corner image fade.  It was only a matter of time!

(Full disclosure, Brian Rhatigan, my coworker and display expert tells me this isn’t a typical symptom of aging displays, and probably has more to do with the source.  But that doesn’t work with my story.  Read his blog here.)

"Heather's Hut"

Living in paradise has its perks

Cut to earlier this month.  A recent Polar Vortex had 75% of the country experiencing below freezing temperatures.  I was in chilly, snowy Chicago (my hat is off to those of you who can handle that!) and I couldn’t wait to get home to my beloved South Florida, the 85°+ December weather and watching the Miami Dolphins claw and fight their way to their first winning season since 2008 in my outdoor football paradise.

 

Flag on the Play!

It’s a Saturday night prime-time Dolphins v. Jets showdown in New York.  December football in-conference rivalry at its finest!  The bevvies were ice cold, the sausage dip was made, and the propane tank was full.  I was ready!  But I was unprepared for a dead display.  It was a football fail, to put it mildly.  Yes, I’d wished ill-will upon my clunky old plasma, but the timing was terrible!  I’d wanted to brag to my northern neighbors!  (Karma much?)  We watched the Dolphins trounce the Jets, 34-13 in the living room on the couch.  Booooo!

Can this be corrected in the second half?

Earlier this fall SunBrite TV introduced their new Veranda Series 4K UHD outdoor displays for full-shade outdoor spaces.  These beauties are up to 30% brighter than typical indoor TVs, and they’re weather proof!  And while that was always a major selling point for buying an outdoor display for outside, now… NOW they’re affordable!

Iguana

My Spirit Reptile

If there’s such a thing as a spirit animal, mine is an iguana.  (OK, spirit reptile).  Not glamorous, cuddly or even cute.  What we have in common, according to Wikipedia is that we thrive only in temperatures between 79-95°F.  This makes South Florida the perfect place for me to live.  And ideal for outdoor winter TV watching.

 

You can’t keep a true Dolphins fan down for long.  My Veranda is on a truck headed to South Florida.  Just in time for college bowl games and the NFL playoffs… I’m holding out hope that my Dolphins are still standing by mid-January!  Stay tuned for Part II, as I turn my Football Fail into Veranda Victory!

Do you have an outdoor setup you LOVE?  Share a picture in the comments, I’d love to see what you’ve got!

 

Seeing NEC Solutions within a Forest of Products

At Almo Pro AV we just wrapped up our 2016 E-4 AV Tour with stops in Boston and then Dallas.  Like our previous E-4s, these events offered our customers, large end-users and consultants multiple CTS-certified lectures (with RU Credits!), hands-on experience rooms and an impressive exhibit floor populated with over 50 manufacturer partners displaying the latest in technology.

Due to space constraints and other outside factors, exhibit halls in general often restrict what manufacturers showcase to individual components and not an entire working solution.  Attendees then must visualize the solution, usually by associating it with a recent or current application need.  But what if they could see an entire solution, made up of components from multiple manufacturers in a single exhibit?  This is a concept I’ve been at work on for the past few E-4 events, and the reception and feedback I’ve received is motivating.

Video Wall BackRepresentatives from well-regarded display and projector manufacturer NEC have worked with me on this concept from the beginning. Our goal is to display NEC’s superior commercial panel designs and demonstrate their functionality in a working model, such as a video wall or unique projector application.  To accomplish this we started with a video wall configuration and called on another partner, Peerless-AV to supply their specialized video wall cart.  The cart is an actual Peerless-AV sku providing video wall mounting with mobility.  Perfect for our exhibit hall floor.  Now we can easily demonstrate the features of this video wall solution and mount combination to show attendees.

TV One & NEC

 

In Dallas we took the partial solution even further.  TVOne joined our configuration to display their low-cost and feature-rich 4k video processing unit that utilizes NEC’s Tile Matrix feature.  We then insured electrical noise-free power by employing a Tripp-Lite double-conversion UPS.  The end result was a working, fully mobile 4k video wall solution.

 

Peerless & TrippLite

Peerless Kiosk (left) and Peerless-AV Video Cart (right)

Next, we wanted to demonstrate a single-panel application with a 65″ UHD Panel, mounted in portrait orientation.  Once again we called on Peerless-AV to provide a video cart capable of portrait orientation, enabling us to demonstrate the panel’s ability to change screen orientation.  One dealer group actually came by the booth that day ans offered to purchase the solution right then and there and take it back to their office!

Also popular these days are indoor kiosks, and Almo and NEC were able to bring such a solution to our E4 attendees as well.  This time we created a kiosk solution featuring a 46″ NEC panel displaying content from a BrightSign media player, all secured and ventilated within the Peerless-AV kiosk and once again powered by Tripp-Lite.

Almo is already hard at work with our partners for our March E-4 AV Tour stop in the Windy City, Chicago, IL.  Our solutions exhibits will no doubt continue to evolve and grow.  Perhaps we’ll employ a unique NEC SSL laser projector based digital signage application with portrait orientation using content provided by Almo’s Content Creation Services.  Rest assured, we’ll come up with something – and our attendees will be able to see a true solution through the forest of products on the exhibit floor.

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Working together and great partnerships make events like the E4s come to life. Thanks, NEC!

 

Move Beyond Limits – LG OLED

LG-Business-Solutions_logo

LG is known for technology that “moves beyond the limits”!  OLED is all the buzz in today’s technology market.  But what is OLED?  “Organic Light Emitting Diod’s” are solid state devices made up of thin films of organic molecules that glow when an electric current is introduced.  When the light passes through the layers, it produces spectacular high definition images.  Simple, right?

OLED’s can provide brighter displays with a crisper image and use less power than an LED or LCD in the process.   LG OLED signage provides 5000 times faster motion picture response time, for perfectly clear images without blurring.   And, LG’s perfect OLED design has only two layers, making their digital signage display unbelievably light-weight and incredibly thin; 4.5 mm at its thinnest point.  Unlike other manufacturers, LG uses advanced four color pixel technology that adds a white pixels to the traditional sub-pixel red, green and blue.

Despite the two layer designs and light-weight, LG OLED signage still delivers an awe inspiring picture quality across the entire screen.  Even from wide viewing angles!  If that’s not enough, self-lighting pixels switch off completely to reproduce black.  OLED gives perfect black!  Some LG OLED models provide curved capability, while maintaining an outstanding viewing angle.

What can you expect from an LG OLED TV panel?   Imagine a picture that is bolder and more lifelike.  That old cliché “you need to see it believe it” really holds true for OLED.  Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WH1_gAqEDE

For more on LG OLED Technology, contact your ALMO Business Development Manager for LG

Corinne O’Rawe | DSEG
Business Development Manager| Almo Professional A/V
P. 888-420-2566 x 6220 | C. 716-474-2323 | F.267-350-0321
website: www.almoproav.com

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Welcome to San Antonio: In Super High “Razor”-lution

It’s especially nice when the manufacturers plan their distributor summits in a nice warm location during the dead of February. Such was the case this month with Samsung in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. Distributors, resellers and DMR’s gathered to hear the vision to 2016 and beyond, while seeing some of the latest product developments.

One of the greatest things about these functions is the networking aspect. You’re surrounded by customers, the manufacturer’s folks and even your friendly competitors (and if you are lucky a celebrity or two). The opening reception kicked off this portion of the conference. Here I am rubbing elbows with George Gervin from the San Antonio Spurs (left) and Director, US B2B Distribution for Samsung, Tom Perrier (right):
networkingSA

A lot of the conversations revolved around the ever-present dilemma of shrinking and sometimes even razor thin margins on displays in both the Pro and especially consumer markets. I think Samsung has got some new things up their sleeve that may be impactful for their partners as to help with the margin issue. More on that later. Now speaking of razor….

I’ve been on the road a lot lately, and even though I consider myself a season traveler, inevitable I forget something. This time it was a razor so I went down to the JW Marriott gift shop. Filled with cowboy hats, sombreros, ponchos, hot sauces and other Texas sized treats, it was your typical gift shop. I grabbed my usual brand from the stand, went up to the register and the cashier said, “That will be $20.12”. WHAT???!! $20.12 for one disposable razor?

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I said no thanks and started to wonder…in this age of fighting declining margins in our industry, how is it that a commodity product like the razor can command 3000% mark up? Location, location, location. Resourcefulness took me to the spa and they ponied up a razor at no charge.

On to the Samsung Product Showcase – in usually Samsung fashion they never disappoint when it comes to new product development. It was good to see some of the concept things coming to fruition such as:

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The transparent display which holds a multitude of applications such as retail and anywhere the end user just basically wants to be uber swank.

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The mirror display which they showed in a retail setting with RF technology in clothing and shoes that dynamically changed when the user took them to the mirror. Here is our Business Development Manager extraordinaire, Apryl Lamberti taking it for a spin.

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Outdoor displays – not just ruggedized, coated and cased back- lit LED panels but..

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Surfs’up! Samsung’s YESCO acquisition last year brings the new outdoor LED.

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Finally the indoor LED was quite a hit. Here is Apryl examining the type of panel used to make the video wall in the background.

I think the future looks bright with the new LED products (no pun intended). What Samsung was showing are solutions that require an ecosystem of services, which is where the margin lies and value to our partners. The opportunity for services such as content creation, can create that long-term relationship with a customer, long past the sale of the display.

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